E-Malt.com News article: USA, WA: Ashtown Brewing Company and Five Dons Brewing to open soon in Longview

Longview will soon have two new breweries on tap, The Daily News reported on November, 4.

Two groups of local home brewers — a pair of cousins and a group of five friends — are on pace to turn their garage operations into businesses by the end of the year. Their operations will join the two existing breweries in the Cowlitz County — Parker’s Steakhouse and Brewery in Castle Rock and Hop ‘n’ Grape in downtown Longview.

The two new groups started making beer as a hobby before deciding their brews were good enough to sell to the public.

Cousins Jarrett and Erik Skreen secured all of their state and federal permits for Ashtown Brewing Company. Now, they’re piecing together a production system and wrapping up construction as they come down the home stretch.

“It has been a blast,” Jarrett Skreen said. “You feel a lot of different emotions doing this. You feel excitement, anxiety, stress. ... But we know the end result will be an exciting one, so we just have to keep our eye on the prize.”

Ashtown will have four to five flagship beers on tap at first, but the cousins plan to have 10 to 12 available within the first six months. The brewery will sell beer to local bars and retail outlets, but it will also have a tasting room for customers to sample and buy beer.

Erik Skreen said that when they open is all up to how fast they can put the finishing touches on their building.

“It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy it,” he said. “We’re done with the paper work, now we can hit some nails.”

Two blocks away, Five Dons Brewing is still waiting for its final city permit to finish remodelling the building that will house its brewery.

“We should get that permit any day now,” said Bill Heston, communications manager for Five Dons. “Once we have that, we’ll start busting out the construction.”

Heston said the group of five friends will focus on distribution, though their 3,500-square-foot brewery will have a tasting room for customers to purchase and sample beers. One pale ale will be available for the first couple of months before their menu grows to two or three, he said.

“We’re pretty close,” Heston said.

Both breweries say all the waiting, working and hand-wringing will be worth it once each is able to have beer flowing from the taps.

“We won’t have to get up and go to work,” Jarrett Skreen said. “We get to get up and make some beer.”


07 November, 2012